This is such an interesting take as to why he came to resent Harry! There is a minor point as that Vernon knew about James and Lily being wizards, but that's a sidenote that, I think, you might've let out for the sake of the flow of the story. It's really well done and it gives lots and lots of insight into Vernon as a person, and fits well within the timeline of Harry Potter as well. I'm really glad that I found this story, for as I am not getting a bit more symphathy for Vernon - though I still do not agree with his actions. It is realistic, however, and the added note of Harry whimpering in his closet, made my heart break for the poor, young boy. He must've been so scared, in a way that Vernon might've felt as well. Really - a great job and I really, really love the way you wrote this.

Vernon Dursley was one of the characters on my list who I thought would be the hardest to humanize. Because characters like minor Death Eaters, or like Crabbe and Goyle, we know so little about. They're hardly there, background characters who really make little to no impact on the overall story line. But Vernon is a character, not quite major enough that we know loads about him but not minor enough that we can simply skim over him, who often becomes trapped in this stigma that he is, quite simply, a crabby fat man who spoils his son and thinks his nephew is a freak.

I quite liked what you did with him in this story, especially how you made him idolize his father. It only makes sense with the way he treats Dudley; he wants his son to feel about him the way he felt about his father, as most fathers (hopefully) would. His father was his hero, and so he wants his son to feel the same way. It's a subtle nuance, but one that works very well and makes a very large statement about Vernon's character.

As well, the connection between the war and magic was striking. He's an adult who should be able to distinguish the difference between fake-fantasy and reality-fantasy, but he can't, and he becomes trapped in this convoluted hate.

All in all, a really amazing job. You did exactly as the challenged asked - you took a character, one who has been secluded to the role of antagonist, and made him not into someone who we love, because we never will, but someone we can pity. Someone we can relate to, and someone we can, in a sense, forgive. So I applaud you for that, and I would like to thank you for entering this fic into my challenge.

xx Molly

Author's Response: Thank you for leaving such a wonderful review! I'm so glad that you liked it!

The idea behind this story is one of those ones that just happened to catch my interest enough for me to elaborate on it. It was certainly an interesting story to create because, although we know next to nothing about his life before the Philosopher's Stone, we have a very concrete idea of his personality later in life. It was fascinating for me as an author to attempt to guess what had made him such an angry man, particularly against Harry and magic, which he had no reason to dislike other than the fact that his wife hates it. This whole story is my guess. :)

Vernon is one of those sad people who latched onto something to hate because he wanted/needed to hate something, especially since "magic" was the cause of his father's problems.

I don't think that anyone could ever love Vernon... But I'm really pleased that you think I did a good job of humanizing him. Thank you!

Oh, how interesting! I've recently become more and more interested in reading stuff about the Dursleys, and this presented a great opportunity. The summary led me to believe it would be Dudley, but Vernon? Very intriguing.

One has to wonder why the Dursleys were so cruel to Harry, and this makes it so beautifully clear. It's easy to see that you worked hard to keep things in line and carefully explore each detail that we know from seven years with the family. I think that's what I love most about this -- your thoroughness. You did a good job explaining Marge and her penchant for dogs, and I like the way you talked about Richard's PTSD.

It's so creative for you to turn the bedtime stories into the reason that Vernon is so distrustful of magic and full of hatred for it. Then, when you add in the military gentleman named Harry who denied him his chance at glory and the fact that his father died as a result of a drunk driver, it makes it so very easy to imagine why he might resent Harry's presence.

Finally, I really liked the way you humanized Vernon and Petunia. We're so used to seeing them as villains who torment Harry and spoil his memories of his parents, but just like JKR did with Snape, you turn things around so that we're forced to see the other side. The way you described their courtship and devotion to their son was downright romantic.

Wonderful! :)

academica

Author's Response: Thanks for reviewing! It's interesting that you thought from the summary that it would be Dudley. That would make sense, considering how much Dudley takes after his father.

I came up with this idea to explore the unknown background of Vernon Dursley, so I'm very glad that this story made his motives clearer (though it's only a possibility). I did have to watch my writing very closely as I was writing this so that the dates would make sense (I couldn't have the age difference between Vernon and Petunia be enormous!) and so that I was putting in references and explanations to his future hatred of magic and Harry.

I'm so pleased that I humanized Vernon and Petunia for you, as that was one of the main points behind this one-shot. There are so many grey areas in life and there's always more than one side to a story- I'm glad that I found a realistic one for Vernon.

I want to leave a good review, but I don't know if I can come up with the words. I feel like crying. Poor Vernon. I don't really have much to say, but WOW. Powerful

Author's Response: Thanks so much for reviewing again! I'm so glad that you enjoyed this one- I really enjoyed writing it. It's very different and unique and I enjoyed delving into a possible reason for his hatred.

Wow. Vernon Dursley, eh? First of all, I applaud you for choosing him as a character and writing about him. Second of all, this was really well-written and I thought the story's flow was smooth and easy. It's almost like a character study of Vernon, which is something I have never read before, and I like how you really made an effort to dig deep into his character and create him, you know? I like the detailing you put in the story.

Teehee. Picturing Aunt Marge as a little girl made me giggle. :P

I adored the parallel between Vernon's mother and Petunia. Wow. You know that saying about men normally seeking women that reminded them of their mothers? I found it interesting, that bit about his mother not being like the women in that era who fought for women's right. She was a homemaker, and for all her faults, Petunia was definitely a homemaker as well.

And his whole relationship about his father was just heartbreaking. It was never explained in the books why Vernon hated magic so much at all. It was touching to see him react to his father that way, and how the experiences scarred him and made him so uptight.

I would've liked to see a little bit more dialogue as they're very useful in making the characters seem more real and dynamic, but that's probably just me. Overall, I think this was such an original and thought-provoking one-shot. I really enjoyed it. :)

xtinjsc (Hufflepuff)

Author's Response: Thanks so much for taking the time to review! I know he's an unusual character to write, but that's what gave me so much freedom with him. Thanks so much for the compliment- I'm glad you liked the way this was written.

Yeah, I guess it is like a character study. I never start out planning to write those, but it does seem that many of my one-shots turn into those. And I'm glad you liked the detailing. I really tried to give him a believable history.

I'm glad you saw the parallel. I was trying to create it, to show how similar Vernon was to his dad (or how close).

I agree about his relationship with his father. There was just so much possibility to explain his hatred of magic and I chose his father to explain it.

I have gotten the comment about more dialogue before and I tried to add some more, but it's a combination of not being totally great at creating dialogue and finding it difficult to find places where it fits in naturally. But I will try again to add more dialogue, once I find a good spot so it doesn't seem forced.

I'm so glad you liked my story and thanks once again for taking the time to review!

When I first started reading this story, I didn't know how it wad going to end which was a good thing! The suspense of knowing how the story was going to progress was killing me but I am glad I stuck it out through the end because the suspense was definitely worth it. What I like about this story is that the ending isn't obvious nor is anything else that was going to come throughout the story. Everything was more or less a surprise and I liked that very much!

This is a very unique story and sometimes those are hard to write. You seem to write them very well though. This story gives us a canon twist on something that isn't canon. You make it work though. The little details are what make this story the best it can be. I love all your descriptions and how you portrayed Vernon's childhood was great! Everything was so believable and that's something I have a hard time with when reading fanfiction stories.

The taunting Vernon got about his father, and the way he looked up to his father made him human, something I wasn't able to see from reading the books. I think that this story has given me a completely new look on Vernon Dursley even though this is completely made up by you. What I mean though, is that this story makes me think about Vernon's past and why it is that he doesn't like Harry. Clearly, he could have a reason beyond he doesn't like him because of his wife.

I think that you are great at capturing the essence of characters. You seem to understand them very well and that's what makes your stories so great. The way you describe how they're feeling, and your own twitst on the characters are so believable. I feel as if you believe very much in your characters and when you're writing, that they are how you portray them. That confidence is probably what makes your readers believe in the characters as well. Over all, great story and I can't wait to see more from you!

Author's Response: Thanks so much for taking the time to review. You always write such lovely, long ones that I love to read. I'm so glad you loved the "unusualness" (is that even a word?) of this story. It kept you in suspense? Haha. Thanks for the compliment.

I'm so glad you thought this was believable. I haven't seen anything like this either, and so it's great to see readers enjoying it.

I'm glad you thought Vernon came alive- I just saw such potential for him when this story came to mind. I'm glad that it's made you think twice about Vernon (even though, as you said, it's been made up entirely by me). Sometimes you have to look at how the past has shaped someone before you can truly judge them.

Thanks so much for the compliment (I seem to be saying this a lot...) I'm so happy that you think I write the characters well- I do try to understand them before I write them. Or at least my understanding of them.

This is such an original one-shot! I've never even thought about Vernon's life before; he's just always been Harry's nasty uncle. But to read how you pieced together his life, intertwined and tied in stuff from the series with your own explanations for why that stuff happened... It's great. I liked the comparison of Hitler and Voldemort; I've always considered Voldy to be Hitler's fictional counterpart. And the parallelism between Freya's small form comforting Richard and Petunia's small form comforting Vernon was well done. I would've liked it a bit more if there had been more dialogue; it's a rather long one-shot, and breaking up the long narration with specific little snippets of the events you described, like what Freya would say when she comforted Richard or an example of one of Richard's stories to Vernon, would have made it more interesting. But on the whole, this was a refreshing one-shot, different from all the other ones I've read before. You're a good writer. :)

Author's Response: Thank you for your review!
I agree- I've never seen a story about Vernon before, and I think that this is partially why I had such a freedom when writing it. The idea came to me one day, when I was thinking that Vernon wasn't so influenced by his wife...
Thanks- I was trying to include what little I knew about Vernon and his life into the story and include reasons as to why he would hate Harry.
As for the dialogue, I will go back and try to incorporate it into the story (I agree- it is a lot of writing without many breaks). The only reason I was hesitante to include it in the first place is that dialogue isn't my forte; it's hard for me to make it natural. But, as they say, you'll only get better with practice.
Thanks for the compliment and once again for reviewing!

Oh, I love this! This is my first story about Vernon and I love how you try to explain the way he acts. It all makes a lot of sense. I especially love the image at the beginning, of the boy walking behind his father, trying to keep up with the larger steps. So cute! All in all, very nice. At times, I felt like there was a bit of a lack in tension, but the idea behind this is brilliant. :)

Author's Response: Thanks so much for your review!
When I first got the idea, it was to explain why he hated magic so much, since I didn't think he could be that influenced by his wife (it seemed that he hated magic more than his wife did). Thus, this one-shot was born.
I'm glad it makes sense- I haven't read any stories about Vernon either, so all of this was off the top of my head (as it should be).
As for the lack in tension, I dunno. I'll go back and reread it, though this is mainly a story about Vernon growing up, and the reasons why he hates magic so much.
Thanks again for the review!